'How Is That In Any Way Consistent With Strengthening The SBA': Maggie Goodlander Presses Kelly Loeffler On Cuts

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During a House Small Business Committee hearing, Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) questioned SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler about workforce challenges, and the Trump Administration's budget cuts.

Transcript

00:00Thank you Administrator Loeffler for being here today. You testified that as

00:05you've traveled around the country you've heard three big concerns from our

00:08small businesses. You talked about workforce challenges, regulations and

00:13red tape and taxes. I'm hearing similar concerns but I want to start I want to

00:19address both. I want to start by asking you about the workforce challenges you've

00:23heard about. As I've traveled around New Hampshire and part of what has really

00:31given me grave concern about the biggest cuts to health care in American history

00:36is the impact that these cuts will have on our small business owners and

00:40employees. Do you have a sense Administrator of what the scale is how

00:45many small business owners and employees depend on Medicaid? Congresswoman we have

00:50to make sure that Medicaid is there for the people that need it and not for

00:53people who are gaming the system or double dipping. We know that there are

00:56Medicaid checks being sent to the same person in two different states and

01:00Americans want to know that this program will be there for them when they need it.

01:03We should make sure that pregnant single women are able to get that and not

01:09able-bodied Americans. The answer is seven million small business owners and

01:13employees depend on Medicaid for affordable health care coverage. We're

01:17talking about the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American history. We're also

01:21not extending the ACA premium tax credits which is going to hurt our small

01:25businesses across this country and it's what I'm hearing from our small

01:28businesses every day on this job. I want to ask you about child care as a

01:34workforce issue and and Administrator will you commit to working with me and to

01:38work with our committee to make child care more affordable?

01:42Congressman I hear to hear child care concerns and we want to make sure that we

01:47are ensuring that small businesses have the resources they need and I would love

01:52to hear your ideas about improving that across this country.

01:56Thank you I appreciate that and I will take you up on that. I want to ask you you

02:01mentioned red tape and taxes. As I've traveled around New Hampshire the number one

02:07concern it's it's I guess my question to you is how important is certainty to our

02:11small businesses? Certainty is is one thing that small businesses would like to

02:19have but running a small business is about anything but certainty and that's

02:22why the tax bill is so important. Thank you. They have the continuity of their

02:26expectations around tax. The primary driver of uncertainty for our small

02:30businesses today is this absolutely hard to follow trade policy in which tariffs

02:38and trade wards have been waged and exemptions have been granted. You testified

02:42earlier administrator that you oppose small exemptions for small businesses

02:46from the president's tariffs. Is that I just want to be sure that we have that

02:50right? I testified that we have to have fair trade for our small businesses who

02:55don't have the resources to fight against the trade war waged against our

02:59small businesses allowing small businesses in China to take away to commit

03:04sabotage and espionage when small businesses produce. Administrator, so I'm

03:08going to take that as you you oppose exemptions for small businesses while some

03:11of the biggest corporations in the world are getting exemptions. I oppose the

03:15following out of this country's manufacturing base and that's happened

03:19across communities. Five million workers have not had a voice. We have to

03:23restore opportunity for our workers for our small businesses to compete on a

03:27level playing. I agree you know in New Hampshire we have an incredible

03:30community of advanced manufacturing small businesses and I'm I'm reading here

03:35from a letter I received from one such business in the town of Fitzwilliam New

03:39Hampshire. This is this is a precision motion and engineering company it's a

03:44small business. They said without relief companies like Abtec representing the

03:49backbone of American manufacturing face significant challenges to

03:53sustaining growth innovation and employment. I've heard from countless small

03:57businesses who are worried that they're not going to be able to stay in business

04:01because of the president's tariffs. Will you commit to working with us in this

04:05committee to make sure that our small manufacturing businesses don't go out of

04:08business? Well certainly I'll always commit to working through exemptions to

04:13find these options and solutions. Our solution of on-shoring our supply chain

04:19through our on-shoring portal is critical but we have to ensure that our small

04:23businesses are never at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party again. I

04:26couldn't agree more with that and I want them to stay in business so I hope we

04:30can count on you to work with us on that. Administrator Loeffler you you talked

04:35about staffing cuts. Last week you testified before the Senate and you

04:39committed to my colleague Senator Shaheen from New Hampshire to giving us a full

04:43update on how you plan to restaff critical district offices including in

04:47New Hampshire so that you know as we've seen a 60% reduction in our staffing in

04:53New Hampshire. I how is that in any way consistent with strengthening the SBA in

04:57the field? Well we've certainly seen a return to office and and the return to

05:01office did cause some people to opt out of returning to work in office but we are

05:06restaffing those field offices and people are back at work now in the field

05:10office. Well unfortunately in my state of New Hampshire we've seen a 60% reduction

05:14and this is harming our small businesses so I expect that we will be hearing

05:19about from from you with answers to our questions about how you intend to restore

05:24the workforce in that critical field office.

05:27Dental ladies time is up.

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